Community-led Street Design

March 27, 2015March 27, 2015

Active parents in Marks Gate!

We’ve been meeting with parents from both Marks Gate Junior and Infants school this week. It was inspiring to meet them and see how active and engaged they are in improving both school and community life in Marks Gate.

First we met with parents at the Junior School who identified the need for the following:

– more signage/flashing lights to show it’s a 20mph limit – not clear to drivers at the moment

– trial seating and parent waiting area in green space in front of community centre and in front of Rose Lane

– clean up and brighten up the alley way to Kingston Close

– fill up the potholes on Bardfield Road

– add more colour to the streets and pavement

– find ways to increase and bring pride back to the area –

Parent quote:

“We love Marks Gate, there’s great community spirit and it’s a lovely place to live we need to show people that we’re proud of where we live and encourage them to take care and look after the estate and people in it”

Following on from the successful coffee morning we organised a meeting with interested parents from the Infants school who were also excited to be involved in DIY Streets Marks Gate.

Parents and residents represented were keen to make improvements to outside both school entrances to make it safer for both children and parents and reduce parking directly outside properties on Lawn Farm Grove. Concerns were also raised about the number of accidents (involved children) that have happened over the last 3 years highlighting the current scenario isn’t working.

Excited about examples of shared space from Dagenham Heathway and Hornchurch parents were keen to find out more ways in which traffic can be calmed in new ways and wanted to find examples of successful designs that make the presence of children really obvious and make a clear and safe route to the Park from both schools (maybe a yellow brick road!?). Parents also suggested getting the following:

– colourful rubbish bins

– cycle lanes along Rose Lane

– getting rid of the grass verge where parents wait outside the Junior School

– add a crossing across from Thatches Grove over Rose Lane in between the bus stops.

– to discuss with relevant stakeholders about experimenting with a trial part road closure along Lawn Farm Grove outside the Infants school after school in the summer term. Similar to what’s working in this video from Hackney.

What do you think? What would you add to this list of needs and suggestions for how make streets and spaces in Marks Gate better for people?

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